Louisiana legislative session ends with big wins for conservatives on social issues, compromises on major policies

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The Louisiana regular legislative session of 2024 and the first of Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration has come to a close with a major sweep of GOP-led policy changes on social issues.

After eight years of a Democrat running the state, there were some expected policy changes. Landry and his Republican supermajority legislature wasted no time and led the charge in the country on passing legislation regarding abortion, LGBTQ censorship, gun rights, and others.

One bill, SB276, brought Louisiana into the international spotlight. The new law labels two drugs that can induce abortions as Schedule IV controlled dangerous substances.

“I think it was blown a little bit out of proportion. The bill simply said it’s a prescription drug and you can’t use it without a prescription. If you’re trafficking in that illegal drug, you’re violating the law,” said state Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe.

Mifepristone and misoprostol are commonly used in reproductive health care. Louisiana has one of the most restrictive abortion bans, only allowing it in cases where the fetus is found to be “medically futile” or there is a risk to the mother’s life.

“Louisiana’s losing doctors. Young doctors who are entering that profession are choosing to practice medicine in other states because the state of Louisiana makes them put their license on the line when they’re simply trying to offer care to save the life of a mother or her baby,” said state Rep. Matthew Willard, D-New Orleans.

Louisiana joined Florida by passing a version of the Don’t Say Gay Bill. The Louisiana bill goes further than Florida, especially after recent compromises watered down the law. The newly passed law bars classroom discussions about gender identity and sexual orientation. 

“It’s sad to say that we even needed to tackle those kinds of issues. It seems like it’s pretty common sense,” Morris said.

Teachers also will be banned from talking about their own identities. This will apply to all public schools in kindergarten classes through 12th grade. It also bans extracurricular clubs such as GSAs and other groups that historically supported LGBTQ youth.

Legislators argued that those sort of discussions should be had between parents and their children. Some said kids were being “indoctrinated” in classrooms where these topics are discussed. According to the Trevor Project, less than 40% of LGBTQ youth found their homes to be affirming in their identities.

“Seems like some of my colleagues refuse to look at some of the bills that we signed into law that could be contributing to that population loss,” Willard said. “I can’t understand why any LGBTQ person in Louisiana would choose to live here based on the bills that are targeting them in their families.”

Also impacting LGBTQ students, a bill passed banning teachers from using a child’s preferred name and pronouns that don’t match their birth certificate without written permission from parents. There is a provision in the law that still allows a teacher to refuse to use a different name and pronouns if it goes against their beliefs. In that case, a child has the option to switch classes. There was no remedy offered for the cases in which a student may not have an alternative class option. 

Other restrictions on the LGBTQ community include the legislature passing a law that will prohibit transgender people from using public bathrooms, locker rooms, dorms, etc., that align with their gender identity. They will be forced to use facilities that match the sex they were assigned at birth. Transgender advocates said their legislation can put people’s lives in danger. Lawmakers said they wanted to protect biological women from any abuse but did not provide cases when a transgender person had attacked a biological woman in these facilities.

The legislature passed a bill that will require the Ten Commandments to be hung in every public classroom. The controversial bill was debated heavily in both chambers as some lawmakers did not want children learning about “coveting your neighbor’s wife” and adultery. 

“There are people out there who have an extreme view of secularism that don’t want any mention of the Ten Commandments,” Morris said. “It is a historical document. So, in order to allow that to be discussed, then apparently, we needed a law.” 

Some said it was hypocritical to pass this bill that they felt was indoctrinating children when other bills would stifle some classroom discussions.

“I think those bills are red meat. They don’t solve any problem that’s currently occurring in the state of Louisiana. (They’re) culture bills that the far right likes to see around the nation. It doesn’t address any issues, any woes that are going on in Louisiana,” Willard said.

It wasn’t all wins for Landry as he didn’t get all the policy changes he wanted. The governor pushed for a constitutional convention to take place in May and June. He called it a limited convention and made promises not to touch certain parts of the Constitution despite everything remaining on the table once a convention had convened. 

There were talks of a summer convention, but the legislation to put the rules in place failed in the Senate. No study resolution has been filed to lay the groundwork for a future convention. But lawmakers seem unconvinced the subject has been dropped for this year.

Landry also championed Education Savings Accounts, which allow parents to use public dollars to pay for their children to attend private schools. The bill was altered to stagger the timeline of the rollout. There was also no full financial need allocated. Some legislators were concerned with the cost of these grants to the state as Louisiana is faced with a more than$500-million shortfall next year.

“They lowered the cost down quite a bit and put a framework in place but didn’t put any money behind it. So there’s not enough money to let every child pick a private school that they want it to go to,” Morris said.

Willard talked about the efforts of the Democratic party trying to water down bills and slow down the process.

“We’re not down, that we will continue to fight until we are on our last breath,” Willard said.

With the widespread changes, Landry can consider it an overall successful session. Next year, he will get a chance to make tax policy changes in the fiscal session of 2025. He also will have to decide how to cover the loss of the temporary half-cent sales tax rolling off the books.

There is no word yet on if a constitutional convention will be called later this summer.

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